Nev flipped through the journal and Kamari knew what the knight saw. The ramblings of a mad man. The drawings and scribbles and nonsense, but hidden beneath there was so much more than that.
“I would say that’s heresy, Your Majesty.” Nev’s eyes were cautious as they watched her, a dark look sweeping over her face.
“Yes.” Kamari snapped her fingers. “Exactly.”
Nev shook her head and tossed her back the journal. “I don’t understand.”
“Heresy. Blasphemy.” She took in a large breath, opening the journal again to Desmond's last entry. “All punishable by death.”
I have been advised to not seek that which has been buried.
Death.
Kamari’s throat wrapped around the word until she felt like she might choke.
If Desmond told someone about his suspicions, if he told the council what he believed to be true…
"Desmond did not leave me to find Ravki,” she said. “Because”—she crossed the room and slammed the journal into Nev’s chest—“he did notleaveat all.”
The adrenaline of realizing that Desmond didn’t leave her on a some perilous quest was quickly drowned by the fact that if Desmond told anyone about what he thought about Ravki andastra, then he was, in fact, dead.
Twenty-Seven
Aesira
Massive columns framed crippling stone steps that led inside one of the abandoned buildings. Aesira squinted, daylight was being chased away by night, but with what was left of it she could see an engraving, Ravkian words carved between the two columns.
“What does it say?” she asked Stone.
“Heed this warning,” he read aloud, “those who enter uninvited shall bear death’s wish, a burden of unimaginable things, for in you’ll find the–” He let out a shaky breath and threaded his hands through his hair. “For in you’ll find the heart of the city of lost kings.” He shot her a look and she knew he felt it too, the power that emanated from those words. The realization and meaning etched into the stone.
City of lost kings.
Desmond sought a place of lost kings. Her head spun but Stone’s gentle graze of his finger on hers anchored her to the present. “You found it,” she whispered.
“We all did.”
“Well fuck,” Birdie said. “And we have to go in there?” They peered into the dark opening of the largest ruin. “How important isthislost king, anyway?”
“Bird,” Bee warned but the look on her face proved she was just as nervous as Birdie. “What do we do, Stone?”
Aesira peered through the doorway of the ruin again, the Strix and the water beast flashing behind her eyes. She leaned closer, listening for any sign of movement. Singing. Voices. Scuffling from the wind. It was silent save for their own breathing. Even the birdsong they’d become accustomed to was gone.
The dark was endless inside the ruin, pulling her in. Luring her–
“Commander?” Stone’s finger brushed against hers again.
Her vision focused, like a band snapping, as she came back to the present. “Birdie and Bee, stay back and make camp,” she said. “There’s no sense in all of us going in tonight.” She bumped Stone’s arm. “You and I will go in, and tomorrow at daybreak we’ll explore the rest.” He nodded, his eyes tracing back to the doorway.
“Uninvited?” Birdie shook her head with a laugh. “You’re going to ignore that message?”
“It’s ancient, likely meant to scare off thieves.” Stone slid off his pack and handed it to Bee. “It doesn’t mean anything.”
Birdie let out a low whistle. “Suit yourself.”
“Take a quick glance around the area then make a fire and stay put.” Aesira slid her pack off as well and dropped it on the ground. “We’ll go in, look for any signs of Desmond, and be back out in an hour.”
“One hour,” Stone mimicked.
